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This site contains over 2,000 news articles, legal briefs and publications related to for-profit companies that provide correctional services. Most of the content under the "Articles" tab below is from our Prison Legal News site. PLN, a monthly print publication, has been reporting on criminal justice-related issues, including prison privatization, since 1990. If you are seeking pleadings or court rulings in lawsuits and other legal proceedings involving private prison companies, search under the "Legal Briefs" tab. For reports, audits and other publications related to the private prison industry, search using the "Publications" tab.
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100+ Canadian Prisoners Attempt to Escape From Private Superjail
prisoners at the privately-run Superjail in Penetanguishene, Ontario,
attempted to escape using a battering ram. According to Ontario Provincial
Police, the prisoners, who were armed with homemade weapons and crude gas
masks, breached several layers of security. However, Central North
Correctional Centre (CNCC) officials, speaking to reporters later that day,
refused to confirm that a battering ram or weapons were used. According to
them, the disturbance was limited to a 175-man housing area and all of the
prisoners were back in there cells less than two hours after the
disturbance began.
CNCC is run by U.S. private prison company Management and Training
Corporation. It was designed to help replace 20 older jails around the
province. The plan calls for two more superjails in Maplehurst and Lindsay
and envisions savings of $500 million a year.
The superjail has a total of 1,184 beds, 32 of which are designated for
women. Prisoners at CNCC consist of about 1,000 serving up top a day less
than two years and around 200 pretrial detainees. According to a
confidential provincial cabinet document leaked in 2000, the Ontario
government is planning to use the superjail as a private jail model
implemented to alleviate chronic overcrowding in Toronto jails. The
document stated that the government intended to review CNCC after five
years of operation to determine how much to expand this type of facility.
On January 10, 2003, CNCC officials agreed to cease including racial
designators on prisoners' identification cards. "The only thing that will
remain on the cards is the photo ID, last name, the first name and, of
course, his institutional number," said Doug Thompson, CNCC Administrator.
Source: Toronto Star.
